New Chicago-area IFR Departures Debut Soon

New IFR departure procedures for Chicago satellite airports will segregate business aircraft from arriving and departing traffic at nearby Chicago O’Hare.

The ATC committee of the Chicago Area Business Aviation Association (CABAA) can chalk up another win for local flight crews when a series of new IFR departure procedures for Chicago satellite airports take effect on October 17.

According to committee chairman Mark Zakula, a Gulfstream pilot based at Chicago Executive Airport, the new procedures he and his CABAA colleagues helped create with the FAA will allow business aircraft to climb to fuel-efficient altitudes more quickly when they are departing west from airports such as Chicago’s Executive (KPWK), Waukegan (KUGN), DuPage (KDPA), Lockport (KLOT) and Aurora (KARR). The adjustments will also segregate these jets from the arrival and departure traffic at nearby Chicago O’Hare International Airport (KORD).

The new westward departures from PWK and UGN will begin as point-to-point routes that must be typed into the aircraft’s flight management system but are expected to evolve into traditional standard instrument departures (SIDs). Chicago ATC was prevented from completing new SIDs for PWK and UGN by the decommissioning of the ORDVOR normally used to define climb-gradient requirements. Chicago Aurora, Lockport and DuPage will be able to use the new OBENE1 departure on October 17.

To those aviators eager for SIDs everywhere right away, Zakula urges, “Be patient. The FAA is working hard to make this easier for all of us.”